Bad start (Czech)
I was in the Czech Republic over New Year, visiting my wife and her family. I was quite happy going around the family saying Straš;ný Nový Rok, which I thought meant Happy New Year. Unfortunately, strašny means horrible. I should have been using the phrase Št'astný Nový Rok.Suffice to say my wife quickly corrected me before the entire family thought I hated them!
Sent by: Colin
Comments
In Dutch we say Ik heb het warm which means 'I have it warm' but it is still a perfectly good sentence (and it doesn't mean you're gay either!)
About words - gay and warm - I don't know why, but it is the same in Hungarian, too.
Well, the same thing applies to Polish. I'm warm
translated into Polish as Jestem ciepły - which can be understood as being a gay.
Czech, or "Bohemian" as it was once called, fell under the direct influence of German for many centuries.
It's the same in German: Ich bin warm, which grammaticaly is an exact translation of 'I'm warm' but in German it means 'I'm gay'. To say you are warm you should say mir ist warm.
There's another interesting one - if you directly translate 'I am warm', Ja jsem teply, into Czech it means 'I am gay'.
I would have said Štastlivý nový rok, Slovak for "successful", (ergo, happy New Year!) But Št'astný Nový Rok is more pleasant.
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